In Memoriam Charles Wayne Stockton 1938–2023

The tree-ring community is saddened by the passing of Charles W. (Chuck) Stockton, who died on June 17, 2023, at the age of 84 at home in Elgin, Arizona. Chuck was a member of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research for more than 30 years. His pioneering work applying modern statistical methods for the first quantitative reconstruction of Colorado River flows revealed the unprecedented wetness of the years used by the 1922 Colorado River Compact to allocate the river’s water to the seven basin states and Mexico. Later he developed the first reconstructions of Palmer Drought Severity index over the western United States, and with noted climatologist J. Murray Mitchell identified a statistical link of drought-area to the 22-year Hale, or double, sunspot number. That link was later corroborated by Ed Cook with an early version of the North American Drought Atlas. In the 1980s, Chuck’s research on drought drew the...